"Thank goodness!"
Lu Fei exhaled deeply in relief and instructed the others to release Xiaoya as he held the black umbrella over her head.
However, the umbrella showed no reaction.
"This isn't working?"
Frowning, Lu Fei thought for a moment and placed Xiaoya's hand on the umbrella's handle.
The eerie red flowers swirled, and Xiaoya's soul began to appear. Slowly, it flowed along the umbrella's handle and re-entered her body.
The patches of dog fur on her face fell away, and her features returned to normal.
"It's over!"
Lu Fei gasped for air, his back drenched in cold sweat. The situation had been far too close.
Fortunately, they had the umbrella.
"Xiaoya is okay now?" Jiang Hao asked anxiously.
"The yin dog is completely destroyed, and her soul has returned to her body. With some rest and care, she'll be fine," Lu Fei reassured him.
"Good! Good!"
Jiang Hao was overwhelmed with relief, his eyes almost tearing up. He immediately carried his wife back to their bedroom to rest.
Jing Jian slumped onto the floor, his exhaustion finally catching up with him.
"Jing Jian, how are you holding up?" Lu Fei asked, concerned as he checked the man's injuries.
"I… I'm…" Jing Jian's face was pale, and he was in so much pain he could barely speak. His arm was mangled, with torn flesh and oozing blood—a grisly sight.
"Hang on!"
Lu Fei noticed that the wound edges were beginning to blacken. If they didn't act quickly, the yin energy could spread throughout his body.
He sprinkled incense ash over the wound to halt the yin energy's advance.
"Tiger, get some rice—hurry!"
Tiger barked orders at the housemaids. "Rice! Quickly, bring rice!"
After a frantic scramble, the maids brought some rice.
Lu Fei cleaned off the incense ash and pressed a small bag of rice, wrapped in talisman paper, onto Jing Jian's wound.
As the rice darkened from absorbing the yin energy, he replaced it with fresh rice.
Jing Jian howled in pain.
After repeating the process three or four times, the rice finally stopped changing color, and Lu Fei applied medicinal ointment and wrapped the arm in bandages.
Jing Jian, now drenched in cold sweat, panted heavily, his face ashen.
"Thank you, Shopkeeper Lu," he muttered weakly.
"No need to thank me. If you hadn't tackled that wolfdog, it might've been me who got bitten," Lu Fei replied, his tone light but genuine.
"Hah, don't get it twisted. I didn't do it to save you—I just didn't want to give that damned dog an opening," Jing Jian retorted, shaking his head feebly.
Lu Fei couldn't help but chuckle. Jing Jian wasn't a bad guy, but his blunt manner often got in the way.
Lu Fei checked the corpses of the grotesque baby and the wolfdog.
The yin energy had fully dissipated from both. Neither was breathing.
The baby's fur had receded, and its facial features now looked more human—though it remained lifeless.
Jiang Hao returned after settling his wife, his gaze lingering on the baby's body. His expression was a mix of grief and regret.
If not for the yin dog's interference, this child might have been a normal, healthy baby—perhaps one resembling Xiaoya.
He sighed heavily and carefully wrapped the baby's body in cloth.
"Shopkeeper Lu, thank you for everything today," Jiang Hao said, his gratitude deep and sincere.
"Brother Hao, no need for thanks," Lu Fei replied with a small smile. "Jing Jian also helped a great deal."
Jiang Hao glanced at Jing Jian, whose arm was now bandaged and whose tattered pants revealed his patched-up dignity. Though his expression softened slightly, he said nothing.
Jiang Hao's thoughts remained heavy. "How did we even end up involved with something like a yin dog?"
"This depends on what your wife might have encountered during her pregnancy," Lu Fei suggested.
Reluctant to let them leave just yet, Jiang Hao asked the group to stay until Xiaoya woke up so they could piece together what had happened.
Surprisingly, he didn't ask Jing Jian to leave, though he didn't explicitly invite him to stay, either. He even had a meal prepared for Jing Jian.
Jing Jian, resourceful as ever, found a piece of cloth to tie around his waist, covering his torn pants in a way that was both pitiful and ridiculous.
Late at night.
Xiaoya finally woke, her voice hoarse as she whispered, "The baby… my baby…"
Tears streamed down her pale cheeks.
"Xiaoya, don't cry. We can have another child. Right now, your health is what matters most," Jiang Hao said, holding her tenderly as he tried to console her.
"It wasn't our fault. The baby was affected by something unclean," he added, waiting until she had calmed slightly before asking, "Did anything strange happen to you during the pregnancy? Did you meet anyone unusual?"
Xiaoya leaned against Jiang Hao, her expression dazed as she tried to recall. After a moment, she shook her head.
"Brother Hao, you know me. Ever since I got pregnant, I've mostly stayed home, except for occasional shopping or walking the dogs. Who could I have offended?"
"That's true. You've always been gentle and conflict-averse. The problem must not be with you," Jiang Hao agreed, brushing her hair affectionately.
Jing Jian let out a derisive snort. "Xiaoya's too kindhearted—she even rescues stray dogs. If anyone's to blame, it's someone else's past sins dragging her into this mess."
Jiang Hao glared at him. "I may have lived a rough life before, but I've been clean for years. If someone wanted revenge, why wait until now?"
"Brother Jian, Hao isn't like that. You just don't understand him," Xiaoya interjected seriously. "He might seem rough on the outside, but he has a good heart."
Jing Jian froze, his expression sour as he fell silent.
"If it's not revenge, could it just be bad luck?" Chen Jinfa scratched his head. "Maybe you stumbled into something by accident?"
Jiang Hao and Xiaoya exchanged a pained look. Xiaoya's tears began to flow again.
Lu Fei broke the silence. "Brother Hao, Sister Xiaoya, think carefully. Was there anything unusual involving dogs recently? Yin dogs are almost never natural—they're typically created by humans."
"Dogs?" Xiaoya froze, then suddenly remembered something. Tears still streaking her face, she exclaimed, "Yes! I had a confrontation with a dog trader while rescuing a truckload of dogs recently. Could that be it?"
"Tell us more," Lu Fei urged.
Xiaoya gathered her thoughts.
"One day, I was out shopping for baby supplies when I saw a filthy truck full of dogs. Many of them were purebreds, and I suspected they'd been stolen for meat markets."
"I can't stand that kind of cruelty, so I asked the driver how much it would cost to buy them all. But the trader refused, and when I tried reasoning with him, he insulted me. I got so angry I called the police."
"But without concrete evidence, the police couldn't do much. Before leaving, the trader…"
Her voice trembled as she gripped Jiang Hao's hand tightly.
"It's him! Brother Hao, it must be him! He pointed at my stomach and said something—something awful!"